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Cambria Driveway & Pavers: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
We install and repair driveway and paver systems built with Cambria-compatible materials throughout Fort Lauderdale, and a full paver driveway installation here typically runs $7,000 to $18,000 depending on square footage, base prep, and the paver line you choose. Most homeowners discover a problem the same way: a paver starts rocking underfoot, a section of the driveway settles after a heavy rain, or the sand joints between pavers wash out and weeds take over. This page covers what fails first, what it costs to fix in our market, and whether you should reach for a shovel or reach for the phone.
One thing worth saying up front: Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale is an independent general contractor. We’re not affiliated with Cambria, and we’re not an authorized Cambria parts distributor. What we are is a local crew that works with Cambria-compatible hardscape systems every week, and we stock the fasteners, edge restraints, joint sand, and base materials that keep those systems intact in South Florida’s climate.
Which Cambria Models This Applies To
Cambria’s hardscape and paver lines span several series, and the compatibility details matter more than most owners expect. The key spec to check is paver thickness: 60mm pavers are rated for pedestrian and light vehicle use, while 80mm pavers are the standard for full driveway traffic. If you have a driveway that was built with 60mm pavers because the previous contractor wanted to save a few dollars on material, that’s the root cause of most cracking and shifting we see in Fort Lauderdale. Vehicles eventually win against undersized pavers.
To identify what you have, look at the side of any pulled paver. The thickness is usually stamped or easily measured with a tape. The pattern matters too: a herringbone layout interlocks and spreads load far better than a running bond (straight rows), which is why herringbone driveways in Fort Lauderdale hold up noticeably longer against our sandy, shifting subgrade. When a customer asks whether to go OEM Cambria or a quality aftermarket equivalent for replacement pavers, our honest answer is this: for color matching, OEM is the only way to get an exact blend. For structural fill below the surface layers, aftermarket base and joint material from a known brand does the same job at a better number.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Cambria Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Rocking or shifting pavers underfoot. This almost always traces back to base failure below the sand setting layer. In Fort Lauderdale, the culprit is usually limestone base that was never compacted in lifts, or a sand layer that’s too thick at the edges.
- Washed-out joints between pavers. Our afternoon thunderstorms move a lot of water fast. When joint sand isn’t polymeric (the kind that hardens after wetting), rain flushes it out within a season or two, and the pavers start grinding against each other.
- Standing water pooling in low spots. A paver driveway should be pitched to shed water. Pooling means the base settled unevenly, or the original slope was cut too shallow for Fort Lauderdale’s rainfall. Either way, the fix is lifting the affected section and re-screeding it, not just topping off sand.
- Edge pavers spreading outward. The edge restraint – usually plastic or aluminum – is what keeps the border pavers from drifting. When it fails, the whole field loses tension and pavers start separating. We see this most on driveways installed without concrete toe-beams at the edges.
- Cracks running across multiple pavers in a line. That’s a settling joint, not a paver problem. It means something under the base gave way: a rotted tree root, an old utility trench that was backfilled loose, or natural settlement of the sandy soil we build on here.
See the difference
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After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In Fort Lauderdale, a full Cambria-style paver driveway installation runs $7,000 to $18,000. A partial repair – lifting and relaying a settled section of 100 square feet or less – usually lands between $1,500 and $3,500, depending on whether the base needs rebuilding or just re-screeding. Driveway replacement, when the existing pavers are too far gone or the base is fatally compromised, runs $5,000 to $14,000.
| Scope of Work | Typical Installed Range (Fort Lauderdale) |
|---|---|
| Paver driveway installation (new build) | $7,000 – $18,000 |
| Driveway replacement (tear-out and relay) | $5,000 – $14,000 |
| Partial paver repair / section relay | $1,500 – $3,500 |
| Paver patio installation | $3,500 – $11,000 |
| Driveway sealing | $250 – $700 |
What drives the number up: total square footage, base depth requirements, paver thickness (80mm costs more than 60mm), edge-restraint type, and whether we’re hauling away an old concrete slab underneath. Every quote we write in Fort Lauderdale is a written number before work starts – not a range, not a ballpark. The number on day one is the number on the invoice. And every installation carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing: if a paver settles, a joint washes out, or an edge shifts inside that year, we come back and fix it at no charge.
DIY or Call Us?
The honest split goes like this: you can safely check the obvious things yourself. Look for pavers rocking under hand pressure. Look for gaps at the edges. Watch where water sits after the next downpour. Those observations help us quote accurately over the phone.
Where DIY goes wrong in Fort Lauderdale is the base. Pulling up pavers and throwing down bagged sand from the big-box store fixes the look for a month, maybe two, then the same settling comes back because the problem was always underneath. Paver work isn’t dangerous the way garage-door springs are, but it is back-breaking and deceptively technical. If you’ve got more than a few square feet of failure, call us at (754) 551-2922 and we’ll give you a straight answer about what’s actually wrong before anyone picks up a shovel.
FAQs
A properly installed 80mm paver driveway on a compacted base will give you 25 to 30 years of service life in Fort Lauderdale, provided the joints are maintained with polymeric sand every few years. Undersized 60mm pavers on a thin base will crack inside five to seven years under vehicle traffic. The paver itself rarely fails first; the base does the failing.
Yes, most of the time. If the failure is confined to a section – a settled trench line, a low corner, a washed-out edge – we lift that section, rebuild the base underneath it, and relay the pavers without touching the rest of the driveway. Replacement only makes sense when the base is compromised everywhere or the existing pavers are too degraded to color-match. Call (754) 551-2922 and we’ll tell you which situation you have.
A partial section repair in Fort Lauderdale is usually a one-to-two-day job. A full driveway installation, including base excavation, compaction, and paver laying, runs three to five working days depending on size and access. We give you a written arrival window before the job starts, and we hit it.
We stock the common consumables – poly sand, edge restraints, base aggregates, and the fastening supplies for adjacent hardscape work – on our trucks. For specific Cambria paver colors and series, we source exact matches from local Fort Lauderdale suppliers, which takes a day or two. If you’re also maintaining KraftMaid cabinetry, Silestone countertops, or Kohler fixtures elsewhere on the property, mention it on the call and we’ll consolidate the material run.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale at Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
Tell me what you need, I’ll tell you what it costs – then we’ll get it done.
Call (754) 551-2922 for a free estimate on your paver driveway repair or replacement. A real person answers, 24/7.
